


The Worthwhile Fight

by greeneyedharpy



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 11:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3568136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greeneyedharpy/pseuds/greeneyedharpy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan resented sharing her birthday with the Empire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Worthwhile Fight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosbridge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosbridge/gifts).



> Prompt: Senator Leia Organa and Darth Vader have a common enemy: corruption in the Senate. They find themselves reluctantly fighting crime together. Alternatively, they find themselves making awkward small talk at a state function. Really, anything where they’re forced to hang out would be excellent.

Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan resented sharing her birthday with the Empire. It meant that each year, Leia would dress in a gown of sumptuous, expensive fabric and sit still for hours as her hair was brushed, braided, twisted and pinned. She would have to force her feet into tight, pinching, impossible shoes that made it difficult to seem graceful when she tried to take more than two steps. Finally, she would be fussed over, as she had to smile and curtsey and celebrate the one stupid day that made people more miserable than any other. 

 

Leia slouched low in her chair and huffed.

 

"Come now, Princess," an attendant chided in a tone that made it patently obvious she had not yet come to view the sixteen year old as a woman and had no tolerance for the way that Leia began impatiently drumming her fingers against the table in front of her. "You must look your best. The Emperor himself suggested Lord Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin visit Alderaan as personal guests of the Crown. He has bestowed Alderaan with a tremendous honour for your birthday."

 

Leia rolled her eyes and sighed, drawing her gaze to the view that unfolded beyond her balcony. Directly below, the closest of the rich green hills that surrounded the palace were being transformed for the evening ahead. Trees, bushes, marquees and benches were being marshaled into place, creating the illusion of privacy on a night where there would be anything but. Out there, there were so many different people, each busy with their own task, their own purpose. They were entirely unaware of the implications of such a visit, and what it could do to the evening her mother and father had planned.  And perhaps that was the problem, Leia reflected, dragging her eyes back to the mirror to see the long braids deftly twisted with deep blue and gold ribbon pinned atop her curls. Tonight, she too had her own purpose, her own role to play beyond the purely ceremonial, and the news that Lord Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin were to be her guests only made it more complicated. Her father had finally entrusted her with a real and active mission for the Rebellion, and it had already gone wrong. Her original mission had been to remove a datachip from the person of some mid level Moff who had been overseeing the construction of a detention facility in a neighbouring system. But fortunes fell fast in the Empire—faster than Leia could ever keep track of—and so the responsibility, and the all-important information, now fell to Grand Moff Tarkin. To say she was nervous was an understatement. But she was sixteen now, and she was not going to let her father down.

 

\---

 

The Grand Royal Ballroom had deep, plush carpets, crystal chandeliers and the kind of artwork that could fund the economies of some Outer Rim worlds. At one end of the room was a grand marble staircase with shining silver banisters, delicately engraved. The floor to ceiling windows had been thrown open, bathing the small courtyards in a warm glow all the way out to where the tiles caressed the grass beyond. The palace truly looked beautiful, only it seemed as if hardly anyone was paying any attention to the grandeur that surrounded them. Instead, as a result of the Emperor's last minute decision to send Tarkin and Darth Vader to partake in the Empire Day festivities, Leia watched the Imperial officers watch the bureaucrats, watching the nobility, who tried to pretend that they were too good to keep tabs on the Imperial officers. She rolled her eyes. It was not a particularly convincing display.

 

With the practiced air of someone twice her age, Leia lifted a glass of emerald wine from the tray of a passing waiter and took a thoughtful sip. Usually, her parents worked hard to ensure that even Empire Day celebrations on Alderaan were enjoyable for everyone, free from too much scrutiny from the Empire. Their failure this year was reflected in the somber atmosphere of the ballroom, where even the orchestra seemed to play apologetically, music hanging overhead like swollen rain clouds.

 

She was so absorbed by watching the forced, clockwork conversations between partygoers that the touch of her father's hand on her back made her jump, expressing her surprise in words she knew he would not approve of.

 

"Language," Bail Organa murmured with a smile. "So even my brash, bold and daring daughter feels jumpy in Vader's presence, hmm? What happened to 'that monster is all bark and no bite'?”

 

"I did not say that," Leia replied, setting her glass of wine down on a neighbouring table. "I am usually a lot more creative in my insults. Perhaps I said he is more of a fat, spoiled house cat than a manka cat."

 

When Bail chuckled, Leia allowed herself a small smile, relaxing slightly. She may have grown up in a family that would speak openly about rebellion, but she had yet to learn how to ignore the nerves that fluttered in her stomach like mynocks in the dark whenever a high ranking Imperial officer like Tarkin or Vader decided to make their presence felt at one of Alderaan's official events. It was a stern warning that no matter who you were, the Empire would always be watching. Leia shivered, and glanced darkly towards Lord Vader.

 

"Shall we dance?" Her father asked, breaking through Leia's heavy thoughts. 

 

He extended a hand towards her. The signal. The mynocks flapped harder, but Leia still nodded. On the dance floor, she knew she would feel more in her element. The ocean-like sway of the bodies and the repetition of the dance steps went a long way towards calming her nerves. As the song played on, Leia felt herself focus less on the dark presence on the other side of the ballroom, and more on how normal this was, like any other official occasion. Like any other Empire Day, like every other birthday before. As a child, Leia had often chafed against the instruction of her etiquette and dance tutors, unable to see what could be gained from memorising step after agonising step and every inane hierarchical greeting. To a young Leia, these dances seemed so slow and deliberate that they were more an elaborate way of standing in line. And waiting, she was sure everyone knew, was the single most boring thing in the world. Now, though, as her father lifted his hand and spun her in a circle, she could appreciate the intricacies. Leia took a few steps to the left and curtseyed to the ageing regional governor whose name she could never remember. He bowed to her in return and the music picked up again. The dance would repeat itself like this over and over, until Leia had worked her way around the circle and back to her father, past Moffs, aristocrats and their hangers on, desperate to prove their relevance in any way possible.

 

It was one Moff in particular that Leia had been instructed to dance with, though Tarkin's sudden arrival had changed that. With the datachip that the Rebellion so desperately needed now in his hands, Leia was tasked with somehow removing it from him.  It took everything she had not to convulse under his hands when they settled on her shoulder and her hip. She was sure her lip curled in revulsion from the way Tarkin's sharp blue eyes seemed to pierce the insides of her being.

 

"Ah, yes. Princess," he said in that annoyingly pompous way of his, deliberately rolling his 'r's far more vigorously than any other human would. "You are of majority now. Perhaps I may look forward to exchanging far more _adult_ pleasantries with you in the future? You have had such a juvenile way about you, until now."

 

Leia fixed him with the most sickly smile she could conjure, dancing closer so it would appear less obvious when her hand grazed his trouser pocket, fingers slipping deftly inside and back out again in a matter of seconds.

 

"I always found that I gave conversation as good as I received," Leia replied, palming the stolen data chip carefully into her glove. "And my father will be gravely concerned to hear that you wish to exchange _anything_ adult with me. Especially as I am the crown princess of this system."

 

When Tarkin sneered at her, Leia could not help but recoil this time, though she commanded herself sternly, refusing to allow her knees to give way. Tarkin's sneer morphed into a victorious smirk.

 

"Excuse me," Leia muttered, "My mother is calling." Though she backed away swiftly, she still caught his parting, venomous threat.

 

"Do be careful Princess, you will not be able to hide behind her skirts forever."

 

\---

 

The speed with which she fled across the ballroom was hardly princess-like, moving with such haste that easily offended partygoers were turning to remark. Leia hardly had time for that, needing to put as much space between herself and Tarkin as possible, before the panicked feeling threatened to overtake her.

 

Taking a moment to check over her shoulder that she was not being pursued, Leia had no time to avoid slamming into the bulk of a guest standing obliviously in her path.

 

"Many apologies--" She said instantly, looking up to see just who it was she may have offended. Her blood went cold in her veins. The familiar _woosh-hiss_ of Vader's breathing system swam in her ears.

 

"Who you running away from, Princess?" Vader asked, and Leia tried to take a small step backwards to put some distance between them, though she knew it was futile. Vader had powers she would never understand. It was the only truly terrifying thing about him. "It appears to me that only the guilty would attempt to flee their own party."

 

"It's nothing of the sort, Lord Vader," Leia snapped, squaring her shoulders and pushing her chin up towards him. “Why must you always seem convinced of my guilt, even when you know of no crime? I am merely in the mood for some fresh air." 

 

"A likely story," Vader retorted, and Leia was sure that was somehow using some kind of trick to seem even larger than her than he already was. She was hardly intimidated. “Your father is…idealistic. I find it hard to believe that he would not have passed these traits onto his daughter.”

 

Leia snorted.

 

“And I suppose the Emperor has now made it a crime to do the right thing?”

 

She had frequently faced off with Vader in the Senate, and in the halls of space cruisers since she was not more than twelve years old. This was no different than a few months earlier when he had stormed into her father’s office in the Senate building on Coruscant, hurling accusations that her father was training her to follow in the footsteps of dead political martyrs. Whether or not she had heard stories of these martyrs was irrelevant. Leia had stood in front of him, just as she was now, hands planted on her hips. _“I don’t need to hear stories of dead people to know right from wrong,”_ she had announced.

 

Later, though her father had hugged her and kissed her and told Leia that he loved her, he had cautioned her about losing her temper in front of Lord Vader again, because, he’d said, _“You are so much more than what he thinks_.”

 

“You and I have very different definitions of right and wrong.” Vader said. “I am watching you, Princess, and you will pay due respect to the day's significance." 

 

"I am fully aware of the day's significance," Leia replied, bouncing on the balls of her toes, excited to finally feel as if she had one up on her opponent. "Today is my birthday, and as far as I am concerned, it is the most important thing that has ever happened on this date."   

 

The rumbling that emanated from somewhere in Darth Vader's chest was entirely confusing, and though she had long years of experience with confronting him, this was something entirely new. It felt like minutes passed before he said, "You and I are not completely unlike. You should remember that, Princess. I too observe a birthday of sorts today."  

 

Leia furrowed her brow, frowning. She placed her hands on her hips and said, "I am _nothing_ like you." In the back of her mind, something felt dangerous and uncertain, like the mynocks she felt before, only bigger. Leia knew the trick to escaping Lord Vader alive was to keep the insults brief and have an escape route planned, and she had already broken both of those rules. "And as I am the guest of honour at this ball, I should leave."

 

She spun on her heel and moved towards another set of large doors, leading to a balcony where, somewhere, her contact should have been waiting.  

 

\--- 

 

Although this was not the first time she had met her contact face to face, Leia was painfully aware that she knew little about her contact, other than that she was a woman, older than Leia, and that she was possibly alien. Leia was nearly certain that she had once caught a glimpse of a lekku beneath the shadow hood, but she still couldn't be sure.  

 

"Leia! Over here!" The familiar voice called softly, and Leia turned to see a hooded figure peeking out from behind some elaborately styled flowering trees. She hurried over, removing her glove as she went.   

 

"We must be quick," Leia whispered, handing over the datachip. She looked over her shoulder towards the warmly lit doxorways while her contact slid the chip into her datapad, fingers dancing rapidly across the screen. "Tarkin and Vader are inside. Tarkin's the one who had the chip." 

 

Her contact, who Leia knew only as Fulcrum, snapped her eyes up to Leia, her hand stalling on the datapad. "Vader's here? _Tarkin_ is here?"   

 

Leia nodded, shuddering as the air cooled rapidly around them.

 

"Vader I can handle. I'm the Princess, he can't do anything to me without risking destabilising the Senate. The Emperor's got him on a short leash. But Tarkin..." She trailed off, wrapping her arms around herself.  

 

"He's unpredictable, dangerous, and ambitious," Fulcrum finished for her. "Watch out for him." She plucked the data chip from the pad and dropped it on the polished marble tiling. With a swift movement she crushed it beneath her heel, then looked to study the remains, before fixing her eyes on Leia. "You did well tonight, but you should return to the party before anyone notices you're gone. Tell your father I'll be in touch."  

 

Leia nodded, opening her mouth to ask a final question, but Fulcrum disappeared in an instant. She took a deep breath instead, smoothing her hands over the bodice of her dress.   

 

\---

 

Inside, her mother welcomed her with a warm hug and a smile, plucking a flower blossom from her hair.

 

"Happy birthday, my darling."

 

Leia leaned into her mother's embrace. It was warm and sure, and Leia felt safe once again. Her mission was done, Vader was nowhere to be seen, and the look on Tarkin's face when her father toasted to her birthday before the success of the Empire was more gift than she deserved, even with Fulcrum's warning ringing in her ears.

 

The party moved outdoors to watch the richly coloured fireworks explode overhead in bursts of blue, gold, red, green, white and purple. It was a successful sixteenth birthday, Leia decided, and though she was never going to be entirely happy celebrating her birthday on the day they celebrated the birth of the Empire, she had helped make a small difference in the galaxy, and that was a purpose to be proud of.


End file.
